APPENDIX 3: CALL FOR EVIDENCE
The House of Lords European Union Committee is to
conduct an inquiry on EU policies and actions to combat fraud
against the financial interests of the EU. The inquiry will be
undertaken by its Sub-Committee on Justice, Institutions and Consumer
Protection, chaired by Lord Bowness. The Sub-Committee invites
evidence from anyone with an interest.
Written evidence is sought by 14 September 2012.
Public hearings will be held in autumn 2012. The Committee aims
to report to the House, with recommendations, in February 2013.
The report will receive a response from the Government and may
be debated in the House.
Background
Fraud is estimated to cost the EU around €500
million a year. The EU is vulnerable to fraud affecting both its
expenditure and the sources of its revenue, such as customs duties
and VAT.
While the EU Treaties place responsibility for the
implementation of the EU budget on the Commission, they require
both the EU Institutions and the Member States to counter fraud
affecting the financial interests of the EU.
Member States administer the collection of almost
all the revenue of the EU budget, and share the management of
about 80% of the EU's expenditure. Recovery of unduly paid funds
is the responsibility of Member States.
The European Commission considers that there are
shortcomings in national legal frameworks—definitions of
offences and penalties, and of limitation periods, vary among
the Member States, and cooperation between national authorities
is insufficient.[232]
National authorities do not always have the necessary means to
prosecute cases involving EU funds, and do not systematically
follow up investigations undertaken by the European Anti-fraud
Office (OLAF).
In the last 12 months, the Commission has announced
a number of initiatives to enhance the fight against fraud, including
a proposal to amend the framework of governance and powers of
OLAF and proposals contained in the Commission's Communication
on protecting the EU's financial interests through criminal law
and administrative investigations.
In July 2011, the Commission published an anti-fraud
Strategy intended to complement other Commission initiatives and
set out actions to be achieved by the end of 2014. The Commission
set out guiding principles for anti-fraud policies and a number
of areas for action.
The issues
In addition to any general points you may wish to
make, the Sub-Committee invites views on the following issues.
You need not address all these issues.
- How much fraud affects the EU
budget? What statistics are available and how reliable are they?
How does the EU position compare with fraud against national budgets?
- What is the distinction between fraud and irregularity?
Is this distinction meaningful? How much is lost from EU funds
through irregularity?
- How much of a link is there between fraud and
organised crime?
- Who is responsible for detecting frauds and irregularities,
enforcing the law, and recovering misappropriated money? What
are the roles of the Commission/OLAF, Eurojust, the Member States?
How good is cooperation between the EU bodies and national authorities?
- Do Member States take their responsibilities
seriously? Are the doubts as to the commitment and capacity of
national authorities to pursue fraud and irregularities, and the
effectiveness of national actions, justified?
- The Commission: how good are its internal systems
and how effective is its training of staff?
- OLAF: how successful is it? Does it have the
necessary powers? Is it too powerful—does it respect the
rights of suspects? Do the supervision arrangements work? Should
it remain part of the Commission?
- What is the role of Eurojust? Should it focus
more on fraud cases? How could the proposed European Public Prosecutor's
Office improve the fight against fraud?
- Does the Commission's strategy set the right
course? What should be the priorities?
- How vulnerable are EU programmes to fraud and
irregularities? Are some programmes or sectors more vulnerable
than others? Can the design of legislation and frameworks be used
to minimise the possibility of fraud or irregularity?
The Inquiry will not address issues relating to the
establishment and discharge of the EU Budget, fraud against and
counterfeiting of the euro currency, or fraud affecting the EU's
expenditure relating to its external action.
232 See the Communication on the protection of the
EU's financial interests-Doc. 11055/11 Back
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